Carlos Iglesias

I recently read of a case where a male prisoner died after putting on an extraordinary 140 kilos in 3 years. How is that possible?

I realize this is not in any way typical of prison anywhere but no further details were given other than that he became morbidly obese and could only walk with the aid of a stick. Even if I sat around 24/7 and did no exercise at all (which describes me perfectly) and ate pepperoni pizzas and ice-cream at every meal I cannot believe I would put on anywhere near that amount of weight. Perhaps the man had some medical condition but have you ever heard of such a thing happening in prison?

My cats are just going nuts over this chicken and kangaroo mince I get from the fridge at the supermarket. I notice the pack is marked 'best by' with a date of about 3 weeks after they are displayed. But sometimes I see these little blister packs bulging out like a balloon as if gas is escaping from the meat, that means it's spoiled and it should be thrown out, right? And this is happening with a week still to go until the best by date. Why do they not have a 'use by' date, isn't that how they are supposed to label meat? I though 'best by' was for stuff like soup and rice that doesn't really spoil?

Could pets get sick from eating spoiled meat? 

15 years ago they were saying it was the next big thing, that they had enough oil to supply the world for the next 200 years.

What happened since then, I think the problem back then was that they did not have the technology to easily separate the oil from the sand, has the technology improved since then or has it stalled?

This has been going on for decades, I just saw another one on tonights news, a gang stole an ATM, they didn't give details but I assume they hooked a strong chain around it and ripped it out with a big SUV. But don't we have the technology to prevent that? Cant they put a GPS in the thing so that it can be tracked?

Cant they put a dye bomb in it that destroys the cash when its either tilted or disconnected from its power source without authority?

An ATM may contain up to $100,000 in cash if its full but is it really that simple, does the gang just have to bust the thing open and score some easy cash? Or do they just get unusable bills soaked in dye?

Consider a hypothetical situation, what if I am homeless and sleeping in an alley with cardboard sheets for blankets and no prospects of improvement. I survive on handouts from an occasional kind person but I live in constant fear of being beat up by some random malicious person for fun or having my few possessions stolen or lit on fire. Would I be better off in prison where at least I would have food and shelter and laundry and bathroom facilities and medical care?

What if I committed a non-violent crime like damage to property or arson or car theft or petty theft that will get me a sentence of a few months just to get thru the cold winter, is that realistic or is it a bad idea? Would I be better or worse off serving a short prison sentence or the same?

I can only think of Maclean Stevenson in MASH in 1975.

Can you tell me any other occasions where a comedy show had a character die, usually comedy shows try to stay clear of death in their plots?

A couple of old punters told me they used to use this trick, you stand close to the betting window and only put your ticket in a second or two before the starting gates open. Then you fumble around in your coat pockets for 15 seconds to find your money while listening to the race, if your horse misses the start or gets into a bad position early you just say oops sorry I must have left my money at home and they have no choice but to cancel the bet. Surely that cannot still happen nowadays with modern technology?

Is it really that simple? And if that be the case should it be served hot or chilled?

What I want is basically just a flat white but with less milk, I mean like no more than about half what they usually put in.

I thought it was called a macchiato but apparently that is something very different.

Is there a name for what I want? Seems like there are about 50 or 60 different types of coffee now so I hope somebody can tell me what to ask for, or do I just need to ask for a flat white with less milk?

What if you got a deal you could not refuse?

Like half price and free delivery for example?

Would you buy a lifetime supply of TP and stack it in your spare room wall to wall and floor to ceiling?

It does not have an expiry date and you would be immune to future price rises and stock market fluctuations.

In a doomsday scenario you can use it as negotiable currency to trade for food and guns.

You know you will always need it so what if any is the downside to this transaction?

It was not the explosion that killed them? It was the impact force of smashing into the water at high speed. What if....the crew capsule was equipped for just such a thing....and the parachute deployed and they floated down and landed softly. Is it plausible?

I think this is just a bit of drama they thought up for the old legends and movies. Like when a person jumps or is thrown into the volcano to appease the "volcano gods"

Could you actually get anywhere near an active volcano? Or would the heat be too much for a human to withstand long before you got anywhere near an opening you could jump into?

Since Apollo 18, 19 and 20 never got off the launchpad what happened to the information they were supposed to retrieve?

Is it just a missing folder in the moon file?

Did those landing sites just remain "unexplored"?

Do we have any further information about them now that would make those 3 cancelled missions redundant?

I know they get hammered with lots of use but it seems like when they break down it often takes weeks to fix. I can only assume they are waiting on parts, don't they keep a supply of parts? The escalator at my local shopping centre broke about 6 weeks ago, there were guys working on it for a while but the last few weeks they just put up the out of order sign. Its not exactly the end of the world but since it adds about 10 minutes to my 30 minute lunch break to get the extremely overcrowded elevator instead so its very annoying. Are escalators really that complex to fix, I cant imagine any other gadgets like a car or a watch or a computer taking that long?

Is it possible there are many suicides that are hidden? Since its a very sensitive issue for most people its understandable that nobody wants to blurt out to the whole world that some close friend or family member killed themselves, much easier to say they died as the result of an illness, accident or heart attack, especially if the person was famous. Is it possible that the "official" statistics show only what people are willing to admit and that the real figure may be much higher?

Looking at the different mains voltages used around the world it seems there are basically only 2 types - the 110-120 volt systems they have in America, or the 220-240 volt systems used mostly everywhere else.

Why is one almost exactly double the other? Is there any advantage to having a higher voltage? If household appliances can run efficiently on 110 volts then what is to be gained by doubling the voltage? Will I be able to cook a casserole and vacuum my rug in half the time? Will my lights be twice as bright? Will I die twice as quickly if I stick a fork into an outlet? The nominal mains voltage in Australia for example is 230 volts but a recent news story shows that the voltage on the grid is almost always at the maximum allowable tolerance of 255 volts, this has the unfortunate effect of inflating power bills and rendering expensive solar back-up systems completely useless. Are we stuck with this madness or is there a solution?

My goal is to make me feel powerful and important, to impress the ladies, to command respect from my peers, to instil fear and dread in my enemies, and perhaps to make a small profit along the way I feel strongly that having my name engraved on an atom would go a long way toward achieving all of that. But what kind of atom to choose? My preference would be gold, or perhaps carbon (diamond). Cost is of no importance to me, I have always known that one has to spend money to make money. What would be the best way to get started?

Some brands of whiskey go back more than 150 years, but even if they use the same recipe some things must change.

The technology used for filtering and distilling gets better, changes to the way crops are grown changes the taste of the ingredients, processes that used to be done by hand are now automated, etc.

I know there is no way to check this for certain but just suppose I had a time machine and could travel back in time to taste whiskey from 35 years ago, or 75 years, or 100 years, what if any difference might I notice?

I have noticed from my observation that about 90 percent of cars on the road carry only the driver and no passengers. It doesn't make sense for a single person to have no other choice whether they choose sedan or hatch or SUV to have space for 5 passengers and their luggage if they rarely require that amount of space.

The unused space for passengers adds hundreds of kilos of dead weight to a car and hundreds of dollars per year in fuel costs. I might give somebody a lift a couple of times in a year but all my friends have cars and some family members have access to 2 or 3 cars so of course I have little use for the extra seats for 4 passengers. Surely there must be a big enough market for a 1 person car with room for a couple of suitcases? I mean an actual fully enclosed car not a motorcycle or a trike, the weight saving advantage would be enormous, why do they not do that?

I found a deli that sells a few different types of kimchi, usually when I buy kimchi its found in the fridge with products like yogurt and dairy but these guys store it on a shelf unrefrigerated. It still tastes OK but the label on the jar says refrigerate at 4 degrees Celsius?, the deli is air-conditioned but does storing it on a shelf for maybe a couple of months affect the quality at all or is that normal?